Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/382165
maltatoday, WEDNESDAY, 17 SEPTEMBER 2014 7 News Zaren Vassallo perjury case: parties complain of relaxed police investigation Sant abstains on Ukraine EU association agreement MATTHEW AGIUS CONSTRUCTION magnate Naz- zareno Vassallo left court in appar- ent good spirits yesterday despite heated exchanges between the legal counsel of the parties during yes- terday's hearing before magistrate Carol Peralta. Vassallo stands charged with perjury and use of falsified docu- ments in a 2010 civil case revolving around a contract awarded by Vas- sallo's company, Vassallo Builders Limited, to Avantgarde Limited. Vassallo was charged with perjury and presenting false documents during a civil case where he is be- ing sued for more than €200,000, over a deal in which 60 bathrooms were installed at Vassallo's Prince of Wales home for the elderly, in Sliema. Since construction work took longer than planned, the installa- tion of the bathrooms was delayed and Vassallo terminated the con- tract. According to Avantgarde Limited owner Joseph Vella, minute 1175 – which recorded a meeting that took place on October 3, 2005 – states the date that works were due to start, but when this minute was filed by Zaren Vassallo during civil proceedings, this date was missing. Vassallo claimed that he was nev- er in possession of these minutes of the meeting. Yesterday's proceedings revolved around evidence stored in a com- puter system belonging to Avant- garde, the plaintiff in separate civil proceedings, which would have proved whether or not Vassallo had exhibited a doctored email to the court. Counsel Arthur Azzopardi, repre- senting Vella, had previously alleged anomalies in the evidence tendered during the civil suit. Yesterday he reiterated his claim that Vassallo had exhibited an email minus a crucial sentence that mentioned the starting date for the works. Counsel Stephen Tonna Lowell, representing Vassallo, said he was "shocked that this issue wasn't in- vestigated at the initial stages" dur- ing the police investigation, and ar- gued that the court cannot continue collecting evidence at this stage. "If the lawyer representing the other party in parte civile is not correct and his allegations are proved un- founded, the case should stop and be reversed". Legal counsel Joe Giglio sub- mitted for Vassallo that the pros- ecution was acting on an incorrect premise – that Vassallo himself had sent the email. Giglio argued that the secretary had sent it and that there were mul- tiple recipients, adding that "the central issue is not whether or not a secretary sent an email, but that the parte civile is misleading the court as he knows that the email was not sent by Vassallo but by his secretary. He therefore shouldn't be requesting the seizure of Vassallo's computer." Giglio added that there were mul- tiple recipients to that email. Giglio railed against the cur- rent court system whereby "in this country, people are dragged to court on the basis of a statement by one person... This is a big mistake and I hope to see it change in my lifetime," he said. MATTHEW VELLA THE European Parliament gave its consent to the EU-Ukraine Asso- ciation agreement, which includes a 'Deep and Comprehensive Free Trade Agreement' (DCFTA), in Strasbourg. Former Labour prime minister, now MEP Alfred Sant, abstained on the vote, while the other five Mal- tese MEPs voted in favour together with the majority of the European People's Party and Socialists and Democrats blocs. Sant was an opponent of Malta's EU membership, having made an association agreement that was not full membership a major plank of his party's policy between 1996 up until his resignation in 2008. At the same time, the DCFTA was also ratified by the Ukrainian Par- liament in Kiev. The deal will establish a deep po- litical association and economic integration between the EU and Ukraine and provide for mutual free market access. MEPs backed the agreement with 535 votes in favour, 127 against and 35 abstentions. "Through this ratification, Ukraine's European choice will be institutionalised and will bind the futures of the EU and Ukraine to- gether. Ukrainian society has paid the highest price for its European aspirations, grieving the deaths of numerous people, suffering territo- rial occupation by Russia and ex- periencing deteriorating economic conditions. With this ratification, the EU gives Ukraine the strongest sign of support, despite the regret- table proposal to delay implementa- tion of the agreement," said rappor- teur Jacek Saryusz-Wolski (EPP, PL) before the vote. He added that the agreement was "not a definitive goal of EU-Ukraine relations" and stressed that the com- mon future of the EU and Ukraine must now be protected from Rus- sian aggression by introducing "in- creasingly heavy sanctions until the cost for Russia will be too high to sustain its policy". "This is an historic moment," said EP president Martin Schulz in his address to MPs in the Strasbourg and Kiev chambers via a video link. "The two parliaments freely de- termined to vote today at the same time on this agreement. This is free democracy, the opposite of directed democracy. The European Parlia- ment has always defended the ter- ritorial integrity and sovereignty of Ukraine and will continue to do so," he added. The deal provides both for a po- litical association and for free trade. The political provisions take Ukraine one step closer to the EU, by opening new channels for politi- cal dialogue and establishing ground rules for cooperation in areas such as energy, transport, and education. It requires Ukraine to implement reforms and respect democratic principles, human rights and the rule of law. Among other rules, the deal pro- vides for greater movement of work- ers, sets targets for establishing a visa-free travel regime and aligning the two sides' regulatory systems by laying down detailed timetables for Ukraine to transpose parts of the EU acquis legislation into its nation- al laws and put them into effect. The Deep and Comprehensive Free Trade Agreement part substan- tially integrates the EU and Ukraine markets, by dismantling import duties and banning other trade re- strictions, albeit with specific limi- tations and transitional periods in "sensitive" areas, such as trade in agricultural products. It will also partially integrate public procure- ment markets. As a result of yesterday's votes both in the EU and Ukrainian Par- liament, the deal will be applied provisionally but the date still needs to be confirmed by the Council. To take full legal effect, the deal has to be ratified by the 28 EU member states. So far, it has been ratified in six member states, but several years may elapse before the process is completed in all member states. It was planned to apply the trade rules from 1 November this year, but last Friday the EU, Ukraine and Rus- sia agreed in talks to delay the pro- visional entry into effect of the trade rules until 31 December, 2015. The EU Commission says that it will continue to apply EU "autono- mous trade preferences" to Ukraine, which in effect opens the EU market to Ukraine unilaterally. A decision to prolong these preferences later would need the backing of the Euro- pean Parliament. Alfred Sant Zaren Vassallo